jay wilson quit diablo 3

I havent read all the reactions, just skimmed over the thread. One thing i do seem to notice, people direct a lot more responsibility towards Jay then he had and i think you'll be in for a real let down of you think this will change things 360.

He was the project lead not some sort of dictator who thought up every aspect of the game all by himself.

All decisions that went into any game, are directly influenced by the project leader. The choice to cut PVP, the choice to give us a half-assed end game, the choice to make the end-game a huge, unfun, grindfest, the choice to take Frozen orb ( ; ; ) out of the game, and make unique items crap while rare items are the best... These were all thanks to the Project Leader.

So yeah, I'm going to say with a different project leader - a lot is going to change in the near future.

Most of you expect way too much from a game without ANY monthly fee. Covering the monthly bill from just selling some more copies to botters and rmah fee is not realy easy. There is still an entire dev team working on this game. Either fixing bugs or getting new stuff into the game. Jay made for sure some bad calls for the development of D3 but some of you act just retarded.

In the end its not the call of a lead design go get a game on the market. Those decicions are made from people way above him on the leadershipboard at activision. Its more like this:

Hey Jay D3 ready for lunch in 3 months. Oh i dont think so. We need like +6 months. Dude get the game ready for lunch! We want some cash for next quarter! We already set up a marketing campain with lunch close before next wow exp. and we need d3 to maintain our wow subs over the next months!

More then 1mil copies gone to ppl. with 1 year wow subs for free...And still so many people think a lead design doing the "real calls"? lol

One simply cannot excuse all the errant decisions.

Sure, he was likely pressured into release.

But to do so without insisting they at least offer dueling while they iron out their desired PvP format was a fatal error. To launch this game with no PvP should've been considered taboo. Launching the game with such horrible Legendaries was simply inexcusable.

Point being; Jay could've at least made sure these two areas were taken care of. I find it.....curious...how they could work on D3 for so many years, launch it and then in only a few months concoct such sweeping chances as Monster Power and Paragon leveling.

First let me say that I am not on the hate-train for JW. I do think that he is leaving his position because its the right thing to do with the overall structure of the company. I think he's telling the truth - he wants out of D3 and Blizz is okay with that.

I do not think that the issues with itemization, the RMAH, poor legendary items at release are totally his fault. These things were designed with a clear path of intent - profit. And profit means Corporate. That came from the Powers That Be and it was his job to implement them in the most engaging and fun way possible. He failed. Because no one on Earth can implement that system and make people happy.

Lack of dueling, in trade for a better system of PVP was JW's choice, imo. He wanted to improve on D2. So he fought for a PVP model that reflected his design. And then the game got dogged since day one and they didn't have the time to spend developing what became a failed system to his design standards: Team Deathmatch.

Instead the development team had to take the community frustration as evidence that D3 wasn't working with the pure RNG model of profit that was influence by Corporate. I think JW told the higher ups that it wouldn't work - and he was right. Remember when Morhaime wrote that letter which was essentially a "sorry for the problems - we are going to make it better."

I'm curious - do people think that (simply) JW said "No Blizz Corp, I want the legendary items to be crappy and the rares to be all over the place and I want people to be incentivized to use the RMAH!" And Morhaime, who represents Blizzard Corporate said "No Jay - we want our gamers to have fun, so I'm instructing you to take out the systems that are frustrating them and do it our way to make them happy."

I think JW offered evidence that they (Corp) couldn't get away with the murder they insisted be in the game. And they finally gave him an inch. And he used it to improve a system that he didn't support. But he had to publicly support it for one reason - JOB SECURITY.

Now he's asked to move. And they are letting him. I think as other's have said, he will transition for a bit and then leave Blizz for another company.

Its not his fault. Its Corporates. The question is: will the next guy get another inch from Corporate to make things better?

That is, of course, if you are not on the hate-train for JW and truly look to the top for answers.

I do not think that the issues with itemization, the RMAH, poor legendary items at release are totally his fault. These things were designed with a clear path of intent - profit. And profit means Corporate. That came from the Powers That Be and it was his job to implement them in the most engaging and fun way possible. He failed. Because no one on Earth can implement that system and make people happy.

Why does everybody think this? If they intended to design the entire game around getting a cut from the RMAH, why would they then reverse half those design decisions after launch? In reality it's Occam's Razor, everything is much simpler if you assume that there's no corporate conspiracy at play. There are legitimate thought processes behind every decision they made, all of which they've shared with us openly at one point or another, and many of which were supported by the community pre-release. I fully believe that they tried their hardest to make the best game they could. Some of their mistakes were actually a result of listening too much to the vocal minority among the community IMO, particularly the extreme difficulty of Inferno at launch.

I do not think that the issues with itemization, the RMAH, poor legendary items at release are totally his fault. These things were designed with a clear path of intent - profit. And profit means Corporate. That came from the Powers That Be and it was his job to implement them in the most engaging and fun way possible. He failed. Because no one on Earth can implement that system and make people happy.

Why does everybody think this? If they intended to design the entire game around getting a cut from the RMAH, why would they then reverse half those design decisions after launch? In reality it's Occam's Razor, everything is much simpler if you assume that there's no corporate conspiracy at play. There are legitimate thought processes behind every decision they made, all of which they've shared with us openly at one point or another, and many of which were supported by the community pre-release. I fully believe that they tried their hardest to make the best game they could. Some of their mistakes were actually a result of listening too much to the vocal minority among the community IMO, particularly the extreme difficulty of Inferno at launch.

Ummmmm....not really. What core issues have they fixed? They have only added small content to keep players busy instead of actually fixing the main problems. Itemization? Main dmg source comes from our weapons.....? The RMAH...still exists. They realized this major fail and are starting to create Bound on accound items with every new patch....fail. Legendaries got a boost just to become BiS gear....making most rares even more useless unless they have a perfect roll. This was a bandaid to the loot system that needs major rehauling. And let us not forget the rune system, the so called "Diversity" in spells. There are so many other mechanics that could replace these brokens ones....but they would probably make Diablo 3 a bit more challenging and fun. Obviously that isn't an option.

Blizzard said a bunch of mumbo jumbo pre-release and showed us a lot of it. The community wasn't 100% on board with their ideas, but Blizzard promised us their ideas would work. At game release a lot of ideas got scrapped and the end product was a half finished game. I remember following D3 very closely pre-release.

This is a franchise game. They had so much to build on. Yet they failed so hard.....are these people stupid? Obviously not, they want money. Look at how many copies of this game sold, with the very small extras RMAH generates as well. They want to release an xpac, obviously a lot of that pre-release missing content will be added into it.

Diablo 3 is a failure. But this game still has so much potential. Now wil Jay wilson gone (thank god) they will finally nerf barbs and maybe save this game, for like year 2014. I will return then!

It would be very hard to convince me that the RMAH was his idea. Diablo 3 needed a way to keep ten time more servers for supporting the game for many years to come, to pay the expenses of having a team which is going to be working on the game for said years and also to remove one of the bigger issues from Diablo 2, which was illegal trading from forums.

This sounds a lot more like a producer/executive decision than a lead game designer now. RMAH is not really a mechanic of the game, it's a service.

I also don't see the RMAH as bad. It certainly wasn't made out of greed. I mean... Blizzard gets $1/€1 per item sold. How many items do you think have been sold so far? The bigger portion - 15% goes to PayPal and the largest portion is going to the player that sold the item. I don't think Blizzard are that rich out of it.

It would be very hard to convince me that the RMAH was his idea. Diablo 3 needed a way to keep ten time more servers for supporting the game for many years to come, to pay the expenses of having a team which is going to be working on the game for said years and also to remove one of the bigger issues from Diablo 2, which was illegal trading from forums.

This sounds a lot more like a producer/executive decision than a lead game designer now. RMAH is not really a mechanic of the game, it's a service.

I also don't see the RMAH as bad. It certainly wasn't made out of greed. I mean... Blizzard gets $1/€1 per item sold. How many items do you think have been sold so far? The bigger portion - 15% goes to PayPal and the largest portion is going to the player that sold the item. I don't think Blizzard are that rich out of it.

a good tradesman. Point is Bring to people are having less rewards and wasting too many hours of playtime for it.
as a player vision it is never ending content.. thats trade partial pleasure vs money.

It would be very hard to convince me that the RMAH was his idea. Diablo 3 needed a way to keep ten time more servers for supporting the game for many years to come, to pay the expenses of having a team which is going to be working on the game for said years and also to remove one of the bigger issues from Diablo 2, which was illegal trading from forums.

This sounds a lot more like a producer/executive decision than a lead game designer now. RMAH is not really a mechanic of the game, it's a service.

I also don't see the RMAH as bad. It certainly wasn't made out of greed. I mean... Blizzard gets $1/€1 per item sold. How many items do you think have been sold so far? The bigger portion - 15% goes to PayPal and the largest portion is going to the player that sold the item. I don't think Blizzard are that rich out of it.

That's my point - it wasn't his (JW) idea. And I love the description of it being a service.

The conspiracy is born when you look at why items were designed the way they were. Why damage directly correlates to weapon and main stat. Why the range of rolls on legendary items is so broad that its insulting. Why legendary items were a pile at release.

They were designed to support a trading/sale system that was in the direct control of Blizzard. Its a Corporate thing and JW was the person who was to implement it into his game design. He did the best he could.

And for those who ask "why do people keep blaming the RMAH for the woes of D3" - what other explanation is there for the terrible itemization in this game?

Do you think that JW and the designers sat around and thought this crap up - then decided it would be a good idea to put into the game? IMO - of course they didn't. They thought of a different system. Stuff that we were shown during development. Traits, Enchantress, charms, CUSTOMIZATION. Those things were scrapped right before launch. Why? So you had to depend SOLELY on a limited amount of affixes in a sea of possible rolls, to progress.

Oh and if you remove those fancy things like Enchantress, Charms, Traits, etc - then you have some easy stuff to throw into another crappy storied expansion. Easy mode = easy cash.

It would be very hard to convince me that the RMAH was his idea. Diablo 3 needed a way to keep ten time more servers for supporting the game for many years to come, to pay the expenses of having a team which is going to be working on the game for said years and also to remove one of the bigger issues from Diablo 2, which was illegal trading from forums.

This sounds a lot more like a producer/executive decision than a lead game designer now. RMAH is not really a mechanic of the game, it's a service.

I also don't see the RMAH as bad. It certainly wasn't made out of greed. I mean... Blizzard gets $1/€1 per item sold. How many items do you think have been sold so far? The bigger portion - 15% goes to PayPal and the largest portion is going to the player that sold the item. I don't think Blizzard are that rich out of it.

That's my point - it wasn't his (JW) idea. And I love the description of it being a service.

The conspiracy is born when you look at why items were designed the way they were. Why damage directly correlates to weapon and main stat. Why the range of rolls on legendary items is so broad that its insulting. Why legendary items were a pile at release.

They were designed to support a trading/sale system that was in the direct control of Blizzard. Its a Corporate thing and JW was the person who was to implement it into his game design. He did the best he could.

And for those who ask "why do people keep blaming the RMAH for the woes of D3" - what other explanation is there for the terrible itemization in this game?

Do you think that JW and the designers sat around and thought this crap up - then decided it would be a good idea to put into the game? IMO - of course they didn't. They thought of a different system. Stuff that we were shown during development. Traits, Enchantress, charms, CUSTOMIZATION. Those things were scrapped right before launch. Why? So you had to depend SOLELY on a limited amount of affixes in a sea of possible rolls, to progress.

Oh and if you remove those fancy things like Enchantress, Charms, Traits, etc - then you have some easy stuff to throw into another crappy storied expansion. Easy mode = easy cash.

So glad he is gone we may finally get the game we expected to be better than diablo 2 this sad release surely was not that excited to see what the next couple patches will bring no more getting wilsoned!!!!!!!

It would be very hard to convince me that the RMAH was his idea. Diablo 3 needed a way to keep ten time more servers for supporting the game for many years to come, to pay the expenses of having a team which is going to be working on the game for said years and also to remove one of the bigger issues from Diablo 2, which was illegal trading from forums.

This sounds a lot more like a producer/executive decision than a lead game designer now. RMAH is not really a mechanic of the game, it's a service.

I also don't see the RMAH as bad. It certainly wasn't made out of greed. I mean... Blizzard gets $1/€1 per item sold. How many items do you think have been sold so far? The bigger portion - 15% goes to PayPal and the largest portion is going to the player that sold the item. I don't think Blizzard are that rich out of it.

That's my point - it wasn't his (JW) idea. And I love the description of it being a service.

The conspiracy is born when you look at why items were designed the way they were. Why damage directly correlates to weapon and main stat. Why the range of rolls on legendary items is so broad that its insulting. Why legendary items were a pile at release.

They were designed to support a trading/sale system that was in the direct control of Blizzard. Its a Corporate thing and JW was the person who was to implement it into his game design. He did the best he could.

And for those who ask "why do people keep blaming the RMAH for the woes of D3" - what other explanation is there for the terrible itemization in this game?

Do you think that JW and the designers sat around and thought this crap up - then decided it would be a good idea to put into the game? IMO - of course they didn't. They thought of a different system. Stuff that we were shown during development. Traits, Enchantress, charms, CUSTOMIZATION. Those things were scrapped right before launch. Why? So you had to depend SOLELY on a limited amount of affixes in a sea of possible rolls, to progress.

Oh and if you remove those fancy things like Enchantress, Charms, Traits, etc - then you have some easy stuff to throw into another crappy storied expansion. Easy mode = easy cash.

Corporate. Not JW.

Welcome to the wonders of retard logic.

If they wanted to create the most profite they would just create a rediculously fantastic itemization and then release dlc every month like bethesda and co do it. If they wanted to monetize to the max they would be selling items on the RMAH themselves and they would just milk the customers by adding shortsighted systems on every patch that can only be acquired via shop. But instead they introduce bind on account rings and an entire crafting set. How does that work with your logic?

The RMAH was made because people kept losing their accounts because they go to third party sites and ebay to buy their shit. So why not create a safe and fast way that can be controlled by the developers?

If they balanced the runes, I wouldnt mind it. I don't really play TL1/2, D1/2, or any ARPG because I love adding points into skill stats or picking items off a set route along a tree. I rather enjoy being able to make a wizard, and be able to mix and match skills at will to try various builds. It's also nice to pick a very inefficient build thats fun and try it out for a few hours without having to be locked into that.

I know thats not true for everyone, and I also do think it would be fun to have reasons to make multiple characters of the same class. So having some sort of permanent custimization wouldnt be a bad thing, I just don't want it to lock me out of any spells or runes.

So yah, I do think "pick WW and add rune" is fine, if their were enough skills and runes to make the choices feel meaningful. Right now, the choices are very limited because the runes are so unbalanced.

Thats just the thing why this system fails. Its unbalanced and how do you balance it so you can go a other build thats even close to the "high end" one. You simply cant. Its too many skills to put in consideration in a game like this for that. So many factors and so much around the so called skill tree d3 has.

I know what you mean i really do, but in a game like this you want to build your char. Not let the diablo 3 staff do that for me. Yes, i can say its kinda is that way with a normal skill tree aswell. But the "rune" way is.. well a bad way to go. Some dont play the game for customization i can get that. I dont really do that either. But in a game like this Its kinda one of the core parts.

So i dont really like that diablo 3 hold my hands while doing it. But every one thinks diffrent. I just think its a porrly done skill tree. I would acctualy like what some one said a long time ago. Nerf the strg on items and get points like in diablo 2 is a far better one for example. It's such a simple thing but still does alot to the game. Belive it or not. I maybe want a strg beast barb that hits like a truck but i get punished beacuse of that so i lack life instead of it. But then you need to redo the whole itemization (ohh that wouldnt be that bad either wouldnt it? :>)

It's just my say to what i thought would be better. A "simple" thing like that. But yeah, some like it some dont. But considering the lack of players that is still around i kinda think that change is a must. Not my way just saying a simple one like that would add more depth to the game.

And ofcurse i will use PoE as a game that diablo 3 could learn alot from. The gem system is kinda bitt of for my taste but i like the idea. Who dosnt like a paladin summoning skeletons and shoting ice arrows? But then classes dosnt really matter, just the passives and the starter trees are diffrent. Not the skills.

Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack

"Tried the adventuring life. Didn't care for it. Too much pain, not enough profit." - Vidar the Collector

If they wanted to create the most profite they would just create a rediculously fantastic itemization and then release dlc every month like bethesda and co do it. If they wanted to monetize to the max they would be selling items on the RMAH themselves and they would just milk the customers by adding shortsighted systems on every patch that can only be acquired via shop. But instead they introduce bind on account rings and an entire crafting set. How does that work with your logic?

The RMAH was made because people kept losing their accounts because they go to third party sites and ebay to buy their shit. So why not create a safe and fast way that can be controlled by the developers?

You know - that makes a whole lot of sense. You're right - Blizzard could make more money on micro-transactions, DLC and easy itemization so that everyone found godly gear and it would trade all the time on the RMAH. Because to use real logic and not "retard logic" if there are a bazzillion transactions a day, than that's more profit for Blizz right?

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

But - one question. Has Blizzard ever had a game that relied so heavily on micro-transactions, DLC and easy itemization so that everyone had godly gear and it would trade all the time on the RMAH?

No.

Sure you can buy vanity pets in WoW, but that started like four years later into its history. So if they were to suddenly totally change their model of gaming to go that route, it would be a big adjustment to their loyal fan base - ESPECIALLY when expectations are so high on a game like Diablo 3. So it seems to me, that the safest course of action is to NOT radically change what you are known for as a video game company and stick with subtle changes instead. What could they do to be DIFFERENT but almost the SAME as previous games in their library?

I know! They can create items that are 99% garbage (affixes, dps dependent on affixes, crappy legendary, blah, blah), so that when an amazing item drops, it will bring you a lot of gold on the AH! Or better yet, lots of real money on the RMAH.

But what if it was reversed? What if 99% of items were GODLY and only 1% were crap. Hmm... Bet there would be a lot of good items on the AH/RMAH. Which means too much supply and there is no demand, because why buy it when you can find it 99% of the time?

So which system is better? I think the one where 99% of items are garbage, so that the 1% that drops are amazing and there is always an reason to go buy things on the AH/RMAH.

Wait. Isn't that sorta happening in Diablo 3 right now?

No big change to their games or model as a company. Safe place to buy stuff. And demand is high, because 99% of items are bad. Don't want to farm gold to buy it on the AH....no problem; buy it off the RMAH instead.

Nah. That's just "retard logic".

oh, one more thing - stop insulting people on the forums with childish statements like "retard logic". Bring a constructive argument to the table.

If they wanted to create the most profite they would just create a rediculously fantastic itemization and then release dlc every month like bethesda and co do it. If they wanted to monetize to the max they would be selling items on the RMAH themselves and they would just milk the customers by adding shortsighted systems on every patch that can only be acquired via shop. But instead they introduce bind on account rings and an entire crafting set. How does that work with your logic?

The RMAH was made because people kept losing their accounts because they go to third party sites and ebay to buy their shit. So why not create a safe and fast way that can be controlled by the developers?

You know - that makes a whole lot of sense. You're right - Blizzard could make more money on micro-transactions, DLC and easy itemization so that everyone found godly gear and it would trade all the time on the RMAH. Because to use real logic and not "retard logic" if there are a bazzillion transactions a day, than that's more profit for Blizz right?

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

But - one question. Has Blizzard ever had a game that relied so heavily on micro-transactions, DLC and easy itemization so that everyone had godly gear and it would trade all the time on the RMAH?

No.

Sure you can buy vanity pets in WoW, but that started like four years later into its history. So if they were to suddenly totally change their model of gaming to go that route, it would be a big adjustment to their loyal fan base - ESPECIALLY when expectations are so high on a game like Diablo 3. So it seems to me, that the safest course of action is to NOT radically change what you are known for as a video game company and stick with subtle changes instead. What could they do to be DIFFERENT but almost the SAME as previous games in their library?

I know! They can create items that are 99% garbage (affixes, dps dependent on affixes, crappy legendary, blah, blah), so that when an amazing item drops, it will bring you a lot of gold on the AH! Or better yet, lots of real money on the RMAH.

But what if it was reversed? What if 99% of items were GODLY and only 1% were crap. Hmm... Bet there would be a lot of good items on the AH/RMAH. Which means too much supply and there is no demand, because why buy it when you can find it 99% of the time?

So which system is better? I think the one where 99% of items are garbage, so that the 1% that drops are amazing and there is always an reason to go buy things on the AH/RMAH.

Wait. Isn't that sorta happening in Diablo 3 right now?

No big change to their games or model as a company. Safe place to buy stuff. And demand is high, because 99% of items are bad. Don't want to farm gold to buy it on the AH....no problem; buy it off the RMAH instead.

Nah. That's just "retard logic".

oh, one more thing - stop insulting people on the forums with childish statements like "retard logic". Bring a constructive argument to the table.

Stop insulting an entire company and their decisions based on your tunnelvisioned "they are horrible persons" premise. Do you see pets for 20€ in Diablo? No you don't. Do you see any motivation that drives players into using the RMAH? No you don't. Those that want to buy items are going to do so. RMAH or not. YOU AND EVERYBODY ELSE claim they never use the RMAH but of course it is the source of all evil... even though nobody uses it. and yes, you are applying retarted logic and trying to confince people without giving any facts by simply pointing fingers at a bad guy that doesn't even exist.

How about you grow some balls and start a selffound character. You will find plenty of upgrades. One upgrade on every run. And all of a sudden the loot isn't worthless. If you consider anything that isn't trifecta and 90% of max rolles valuable ... well that's just another case of correctly applying retard logic. You are not supposed to be BiS geared by the end of 12 months of farming. You are supposed to be BiS after the decade when Diablo 4 hits, since you nver reset your characters and always keep on playing the same one.

I do not think that the issues with itemization, the RMAH, poor legendary items at release are totally his fault. These things were designed with a clear path of intent - profit. And profit means Corporate. That came from the Powers That Be and it was his job to implement them in the most engaging and fun way possible.

Is it possible for you to qualify this remark? As in, why would items need be designed the way they are for profit? Didn't the vast illicit item market for D2 show that style of itemization sold rather well?

Show me the correlation between D3's itemization and the RMAH model and how the two were made for each other?

Again, the RMAH offends some people in a way that brings cause for them to blame the RMAH for poor itemization.